Vengeance of the Ancients
by ChickenOfDoom
Summary: Vengeance is a primal desire, one older than time itself. It affects everyone, from the average man, to the gods in Olympus, to the beings that predate even them. That's a lesson I learnt the hard way. This is a story set in 2017, in an AU where HoO never happened. Heavily based on my older fanfic, Revenge of the Fallen. Rated T, but may stray slightly into M. Full summary inside.
1. Capture the Flag

**Full Summary - Vengeance is a primal desire, one older than time itself. It affects everyone, from the average man, to the gods in Olympus, to the beings that predate even them. That's a lesson I learnt the hard way. **

******This is a story set in 2017, in an alternate universe where the Heroes of Olympus series never happened. _It's mostly focused on characters I made up, but many of Rick Riordan's characters will feature in this._ It's rated T, but it might stray a little close to M rated at points. _It's in first person_. It will feature romance, for OCs and RR's characters.**_******It'll take a while for the central plot to start, and before that it'll be about an average ****demigod living at Camp Half Blood.**_

**A/N: Hello everyone!****This chapter is combat heavy, but the next two chapters are focused on introducing and ****improving characters. ****This is version two of the chapter, trying to break up the overly long sentences as suggested by my one and only reviewer, who is awesome. Seriously, I love the guy.**

Life has a funny way of changing in a relatively short period of time. I'm not talking about minor changes either, I'm talking about everything you know being completely redefined. For example, back in 2010 I couldn't imagine anything worse than being a captive of a gang of armed teenagers in a dark forest far from my home. But, a few years after first having that thought, I found myself in that exact situation, and loving it. My hands were bound behind my back by rough, poorly tied ropes. A deadly sharp bronze spear at my back was keeping me moving along at a fast pace. Thick, sticky crimson blood was trailing from my nose.

I was a demigod, a son of Athena, goddess of wisdom (probably a better example than the one I just gave, but whatever), living at a special camp and safe haven for my kind. It was known only as Camp Half-Blood. It was like a normal summer camp, except with an archery range, amphitheater, woods stocked with deadly monsters, lava-spewing climbing walls and countless other demigodly additions.

One of the regular activities at Camp Half-Blood was a Capture the Flag match in the aforementioned woods. It was divided into two teams, and a scouting party from mine had recently ended up getting ambushed by the other team's main force. Me and my fellow scouts were captured, and the enemy team's leader decided to take us captive.

I assumed he was planning to use us as meat shields or bargaining chips.

That's why I was stumbling through the woods under armed guard. I was loving it because I had a plan to turn the situation around. I faked tripping on a gnarled tree root and fell straight onto the ground in a way I hoped was convincing.

"Get up," the guy escorting me ordered.

I rolled over so my arms were hidden, grabbed a stone, and started using it to saw through the ropes binding me.

"I can't," I lied, "It hurts."

The guy hesitated for a second, then knelt down and pulled something from his pocket. I recognised it as Ambrosia, the healing food of the gods. He broke a small bit off and offered it to me. I couldn't tell if he forgot my ropes were bound, or if he was taunting me. The ropes finally split as I sawed through them. I reached around and grabbed the Ambrosia.

Surprise flashed across his bony face as my newly unbound fist smashed into his chin and knocked him off of his feet. I threw the chunk of Ambrosia into my mouth and turned around to face the rest of the captives and the enemy team escorting them.

"Gentlemen," I shouted, then, upon seeing a few girls in the enemy team, added, "my ladies."

My enemies went for their weapons; assorted swords, spears and bows were drawn.

"You will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Alexander Lloyd!" I declared, then turned and sprinted off into the woods.

I ducked and dodged my way between sprawling branches, leapt over protruding trees roots, rolled under a particularly low branch, and vaulted over a toppled tree. I reached through a hole in the branch into the hollow exterior. I drew a sword from the secret weapon cache within.

The first enemy, a huge son of Ares, vaulted the branch, and landed just behind me. I span around and slashed at his unprotected legs. The poison on the sword knocked him out. Hearing rapid footsteps, I started running again. Bracken tugged at my shoes, and puddles of rancid water splashed as my feet slammed into them.

I got halfway towards my team's designated (and well protected) fall-back zone when I suddenly lost all my acceleration and stopped where I was. I struggled to get moving again, but I was under a spell and could not gather any forwards momentum at all.

Gravity stopped momentarily, then flipped and I floated into the air headfirst. I hung there for a few seconds, then fell back to the ground and collapsed. I felt a sword tip at the back of my neck.

"Well, it looks like I'll remember this day as the one where Captain Alexander Lloyd almost escaped," a voice said.

"You got the quote wrong," I managed to say upon getting my breath back.

"At least I'm not at swordpoint," the person countered.

"You fight dirty," I retorted.

The person stepped back, and lifted me to my feet.

"You _are_ dirty," Leah, daughter of Bia, said.

Leah was a long time friend of mine, the first friend I had made at Camp Half Blood when I first arrived almost four years ago. She was a daughter of Bia, the goddess of force, and as such had control over all the forces - gravity, momentum, acceleration, and many more.

"I'm a dirty dog, baby," I jokingly dirty talked.

Leah mimed vomiting, and I grinned.

"You're going to die a virgin," she taunted.

"It's common for insecure people to project their own flaws onto others," I said, trying to make it sound offhand and casual.

"What do you- oh, you little-" she stopped herself mid rant.

I tried to run, but couldn't due to one or another of her powers.

"Aren't you going to recapture me?" I asked, hoping to get it other with soon.

"I have a better idea," she replied, then flicked her hand.

I found myself on top of a tree branch, with no way down that didn't involve breaking my legs against the dirty forest floor.

"I hate you," I called out halfheartedly.

"Feeling's mutual," Leah replied before sprinting off, her long blonde hair billowing out behind her.

I took the chance to check my armour was undamaged. It was made of celestial bronze, like all demigod armour. What made mine unique was the golden trim and a white-gold owl design engraved on the chestplate. It was a bit too small for me, but it had originally been perfectly fitted. It was made for my fourteenth birthday by my friend Garrick, a little over a year ago. I had lost my helmet earlier, but that didn't matter to me. It had been one of the standard issue ones, and far too large for my small head.

I sat on the branch for a minute, then had an idea. If I untied the rope still wrapped around my wrists (just no longer connecting them), I could tie the two parts together, and use it to get down.

Five minutes later I had gotten the ropes off my wrists and tied together. I tied one around the branch, and dropped off, holding the rope. It strained, and the knot holding them together started to come undone. I was a good distance lower than I was before, and in a far better position to land safely, so I dropped.

And found myself hovering halfway between the branch and the ground. Leah had set a trap. I could barely imagine how exhausted using so much power had left her.

"I'm a son of Athena. If there's a way out, I'll figure it out," I muttered to myself.

I could've put up as much resistance and thrashing about as I could to drain Leah's energy, but draining a demigod's energy could be fatal, so there was no way I would've tried that.

I could've tried to climb back on the branch, but that would have left me back where I started, and the whole escape attempt would have been an embarrassing failure.

I decided to try to float to the edge of the trap. I entered a flat, lying down pose, and kicked out my legs, propelling me forwards. After a few repetitions, I fell flat onto my face. It was painful, but better than being caught in the trap.

I picked up my sword from where it had fallen, and headed back towards where I guessed the frontline would be. After a brief jog, I came across a small but heated battle raging by a small ridge. My team was defending the ridge, forcing the enemy away from it with arrows, blades and spears. The enemy were trying to advance over the ridge, but being pushed back. It was a stalemate that could potentially last for a long time.

I approached my team's leader, my older half-sibling Martin. He was a short distance behind the frontline, holding a spear and scanning the enemy for weaknesses.

"Hi," I said.

"Hello," Martin replied, "Where's the other scouts?"

"They were captured. I staged an epic escape," I said.

"Find out anything before capture?" Martin asked.

"No, sorry," I said, "we were captured before we crossed the creek."

Martin didn't reply for a moment, and when he did, it was a different subject being discussed.

"I'm thinking a co-ordinated arrow volley followed by all our swordsmen leaping into their formation," Martin said.

"Perhaps, but what about their spears? Wouldn't want to land on one," I replied, switching into stratergist mode.

"Focusing the arrow volley on their spearmen should alleviate that problem," Martin said.

"Then let's do it," I said.

Martin barked a few brief orders, and the enemy spearmen (and spearwomen) ducked behind their shields. Our group' swordsmen, including me, sprinted forwards, leapt off of the ridge. We rained down on the enemy like hailstones. Except hailstones don't have swords. And aren't anywhere near as deadly as a team of sword wielding demigods.

I slammed my sword into one guy's shoulder. The blade was blunted, so it only bit in by an inch, but the knockout poison finished him off. I sprang at my next enemy, but he raised his shield in time to block my blade. A boot met my chest and I stumbled back. A lucky dodge was all that kept me from a very painful knockout blow, but I didn't dwell on it. I just swung. He parried, and countered. I ducked, and thrusted. He batted my blade aside, and swung for my throat. I leapt back, then leapt into the air and fly kicked him in the chest.

Just as I went for the finisher, Lucas, son of Melione (godess of ghosts), stepped into my way and blocked the blow. I almost got him with a stab. However, at the last possible moment, he turned into a ghost and the blade passed straight through him. He re-materialised as I was realising my mistake, and I was forced to fall back. I managed to put some distance between me and his flashing blade. I hooked my foot under a discarded shield, and flicked it into the air. I caught the shield and used it to defend myself from Lucas' ruthless assault.

An ally of mine struck Lucas in the back with his spear, and the ghostly demi-god fell to the floor unconscious. I recognised the ally as my friend Kyle. We high-fived.

"We won the battle, but not the match," Kyle said.

"No, really?" I asked with sarcasm dripping from my tongue.

"Shut up Alex," Kyle said.

"Glad to oblige," I said, hoping to confuse Kyle via the usage of obscure words.

Martin gave a few orders, and the group began to follow him through the woods. Eventually, we stumbled on the site of a battle. Two people were both unconscious in the shadow of a tree. The cuts that took them out looked wild but were also from near-perfect angles. We advanced more carefully, weapons at the ready and eyes peeled.

A figure appeared out of nowhere, and one of out team fell to his blade. He vanished into the shadows just before Martin's spear hit him. I realised he was Henri, son of Hades, and was using shadow travel. He pounced from a shadowy tree and knocked down another man with his sword. He emerged from another shadow, but this time we were ready. Two arrows and a sword blade all made contract with the shadow assassin. He joined the bodies of his four victims on the ground.

After that, it didn't take long to find the enemy flag. It probably would have, but we found it by accident. Our forward scout was walking along when he tripped and fell into a small tunnel. He followed it, then reported back that the enemy flag was at the end. A quarter of our force was sent down it, and everyone else continued on foot.

When we reached the flag (which was in the colours of the Ares cabin), our archers fired a round of shots at the defenders. Their tips gleamed in the moonlight as they sought out their targets like heat seeking missiles. Every one of the arrows got halfway, then sped backwards and slammed into the bows that launched them. I spotted Leah with her hand raised and realised what had happened.

"GIVE UP NOW AND NO ONE GETS HURT," the loudest guy on our team threatened.

If the arrow volley hadn't failed so badly, the threat might have had an effect other than causing the enemy team to laugh.

We charged anyway, and the defenders met us with a shield wall and arrow volley. Two or three of our team fell to the poisoned arrows. A second later, the two sides clashed. Short range, brutal fighting broke out. I blocked a few blows with my recently acquired shield, then used it to bash my opponent's face in, dazing her. I stabbed her, and she fell to the floor. I impulsively pushed forwards towards the enemy's archers. They were readying their arrows for their third shots.

Unfortunately, that left my side exposed. I felt the tip of a blade pierce my side. The poison spread into my veins. My vision started to blur and darken. I tried to pull out my ambrosia. I was on my knees. I was collapsed on the floor. I felt tired, so tired. Then I was unconscious.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you enjoyed. If you didn't enjoy, please leave a review and I can change things so you DO enjoy later chapters. **


	2. Afternoon Activities

**A/N: Chapter two has arrived. It's got lots of characterisation in, at least, I hope it does. Anyway, please do go on and read!**

**As with Chapter 1, this is Version 2, following the same suggestions as previously mentioned.**

The next morning I opened my eyes to the initially blurry sight of the medical tent's plain, uninteresting white roof. For a few brief moments I had no idea why I was there, but then the Capture the Flag game of last night swam back into my memory. I was quite disappointed that I had been knocked out so close to the end, and, more importantly (to me, at least), the victory celebrations.

'Ah, well," I thought, "They probably sucked anyway."

I looked at the big clock in the middle of the room. It was just past half past twelve, so I had missed the end of lunch by a few minutes. Just my luck. I sighed and got up. My clothes and body were still dirty from the Capture the Flag match, so I decided to go and get changed. I couldn't be joining my cabinmates while covered in dirt and muck, could I? On the way there, I walked past twenty-something year old Percy Jackson. He was possibly the most famous demigod ever. I managed to restrain my inner fanboy.

The Athena Cabin was a lot bigger on the inside than on the outside. All the cabins at Camp Half Blood were. When the Hecate cabin had been built, the children of Hecate (goddess of magic) agreed to magically expand the interior of all the cabins. I wasn't there before the spells were cast. However, I had heard tales from the older demigods. According to them, it wasn't long ago that was no privacy to be had at all, unless you were an only demigod child.

I went into the 'hygenie room' (I had no idea why it was called that rather than 'the showers'), stripped off, and had a quick wash. I dried off just as quickly, and checked myself in the mirror. My black hair looked terrible flat, so I spiked it, making it marginally less terrible. My silvery grey eyes were one of my best features. My collection of spots (especially between my eyes) were almost certainly my worst. My teeth had previously held that title, but my braces had mostly fixed that.

I opened my personal locker, and dug out some grey jeans and a Camp Half-Blood tee shirt. After donning my clothes, I went out to find my half-siblings. After a brief search, I found them at the archery range. It was a tired old building, desperately in need of a renovation.

"About time you arrived," my cabin leader and older half-sibling, Amy, snapped.

"Well, next time, I'll ask the other team not to stab me," I said sarcastically.

"Was that mean to be funny?" Amy said.

"That depends, do you have to be so angry all the time?" I asked.

"I am not angry all the time," Amy argued.

"Of course you're not. Only when you're bleeding," I said impulsively.

A second later my cheek stung badly and Amy was glaring at me.

"Shut your mouth, take a fucking bow, and start shooting."

I obeyed while staying silent. I took a space next to my half-sister Tammy, and fired my first arrow. It soared far over the target, and struck the protective wall at the end of the range.

"Hi, Alex. How are you?" Tammy said as she fired off two arrows at once.

"I'm fine, thanks, you?" I said as both of Tammy's arrows missed, one going over the target, one going under it.

"Never been better. Well, except that one time when- Oh, sorry, I'm rambling again aren't I?" Tammy said.

"Yep," I said as my second shot fell short by a third of the range, "I'm guessing we won Capture the Flag?"

"Just about," Tammy said, "They sent a sneaky guy to grab our flag, and he grabbed it and ran, and I was like 'oh no you don't', and he got halfway to the creek before I could catch him, but I did, and then we took the flag back, and then it was announced that we won."

She spoke so fast that I could never tell exactly what she said, but thankfully just slow enough that I could understand her.

Neither of us spoke as my third arrow clipped the top of the target. The silence persisted as my fourth and fifth shots both hit. Tammy went to get a new set of arrows after that. Once I worked out how to adjust for the range I was at, I was an ok archer. In combat, however, where targets wouldn't stay still, I couldn't hit someone if my life depended on it.

"Why's Amy so angry?" I asked quietly after my sixth shot.

"She caught her Dean cheating on her, and he's in the medical tent now, along with the girl he was with, and I am not joking at all, Amy is proper vicious when she's angry, I would not want to get on her bad side." Tammy said.

I felt a bit sorry for my cabin leader, more than enough to forgive her for slapping me. She had been completely infatuated with Dean, like a small child with it's favourite blanket.

"Tell me about it," I said, then, realising Tammy would ramble on for days if I let her, added, "That's just an expression, by the way."

I fired my seventh and eight arrows silently. I broke the silence when cheered after I hit the ring next to the bullseye with my ninth. My tenth was almost a near-bullseye shot. I was ecstatic. I hadn't pulled off two shots that well in months. Unfortunately for me,I got a bit cocky and mucked up my eleventh and twelth. I got angry at myself, and my thirteenth was out by a fairly large distance. Maybe it really was an unlucky number. My last two arrows both hit the edges of the target.

As I reflected on how that set of shots had went, I realised that Tammy's joke she had made about my archery a week ago couldn't be more true. I couldn't hit the broad side of the barn, but after enough shots, I could hit a coin stuck to the side. Well, perhaps it was slightly exaggerated, but it was still a fairly good summary.

I waited until Amy was getting another quiver of arrows, then walked over to collect mine. While I was there, I turned to face Amy.

"I'm sorry," I said.

Amy didn't reply for a second.

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have snapped at you," she said, "But what you said was just plain cruel."

"I didn't want to be cruel, it's just I didn't think," I said.

"Well, as a child of Athena, you should think," Amy advised.

She walked off and got back to archery. The apology didn't go perfectly, but at least she wasn't mad at me anymore. I grabbed a quiver and headed back to my position. Initially I did worse than the previous time. In fact, it took me until my fifth shot to hit the target. Thankfully, I managed to not mess up the final few like I had previously, so my score was a little better. Unfortunately for me, I got under half of the best shot's score. Just when I had been getting confident in my abilities to shoot worth a damn...

We moved on to shooting moving targets. First the targets went from left to right. I managed to get five hits on targets from a quiver of fifteen. After that, the targets started moving backwards and forwards. I scored a measly two hits. I believe that was the point where I got bored and started trying to make a smiley face out of arrows in the rear wall. It took me almost two whole quivers, but I managed to make something resembling a face.

If the face in question had recently been mauled by a bear. And a hammer. And flames. And a bear with a flaming hammer. Or a flaming hammer with hands holding a bear. I mentally slapped myself to avoid getting too carried away.

"You hit the wall a lot," Tammy commented, "I me-"

I cut her off before she could use all her breath on rambling.

"It's meant to be a smiley face," I said.

It was only the second time in two and a half years that I had seen Tammy speechless.

"Um... I hate to hurt your feelings, but, well, it looks-" Tammy said after twenty seconds or so of near silence.

Once again, I cut her off.

"I am well aware." I said.

Compared to the one in a million event of Tammy being speechless, the rest of the archery session was uninteresting.

The climbing session that followed was far more interesting. The wall was maybe 60 feet high, and rumbled a few times every minute. Occasionally a chunk of rock would be blown off and crash it's way down. Streams of lava poured out through holes in the rock. Just opposite the wall was it's twin, identical in every way. Four times an hour (or whenever a cabin leader set) the walls would smash together. They tried adding safety ropes once. They were destroyed minutes later.

In other word's, it was everything a health and safety inspector looked for, inverted.

I started climbing, grabbing the highest handholds I could reach and pulling myself up. I got a third of the way fairly easily, but a new lava stream opened up and I had to move around to the side. Even though I got at least a meter away, the heat was still painful. I couldn't reach the next handhold in the pose I was in. There was only one way around it. Leaping. I made sure my left hand had a good grip and sprang upwards. I grabbed the next handhold in my right hand just in time. My feet dangled for a second until I stretched them out to points where I could continue climbing from

Just as I was in that hard to leave spot, a boulder came crashing towards me. I tucked in tight to the wall, and at the last moment, pushed off with all my force. I managed to reach the opposite wall. Through pure, dumb luck (although I told myself it was skill at the time), my plan didn't fail. I pushed straight back off of that wall and ended up back on my previous wall, except a good bit lower.

"How did you do that?" Mark, a half-sibling of mine, called out.

"Pure skill!" I shouted.

"Oh, sure," Mark shouted.

I heard him mutter something along the lines of "Bet it was luck" just loud enough for me to hear.

I continued climbing, reaching the top seconds before the two walls clashed together. Actually, nothing that dramatic happened. I stayed at the top for what felt like hours. In reality it was probably two or three minutes. I was waiting for the two walls to begin rumbling in warning of the impending collision. When they did so, I got cold feet and pulled myself over the top. The two walls clashed together thirty seconds later. My original plan had been to time it and 'escape' just in time, but I had gotten scared and changed my mind about taking that huge risks.

"Why did you stay on the wall so long?" Mark asked.

"Just felt like it," I bluffed.

Well, that session ended in a sub-optimal manner. The rest of the afternoon was also not that good, to say the least. We had a lesson on the Minotaur, but most of what was said was stuff I already knew. The little I didn't know was unable to capture my interest. The footracing after that was frustrating, as I was beaten in a race by a tree. Well, technically it was a wood nymph, but nevertheless, I was beaten by a gods-damned tree. It was followed by a dinner that was merely average. By the time I got back to the Athena cabin, I was more than ready to sleep and put an end to this rapidly deteriorating day.

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review. Please please please please please. Please.**


	3. Sunday Morning

**A/N: There's a new chapter. You could probably tell. If you couldn't, how did you end up here?**

**This is Version 2 of the chapter. See previous ANs to see what that means if you don't already. ****Anyway, here's some words for you:**

I woke up at ten to seven in the morning on Sunday. Well, technically, I didn't wake up, I was woken up. If I hadn't been woken, I would have slept until two in the afternoon. I'd done it before. But this Sunday there was bacon sandwiches for breakfast, and, bacon sandwiches being possibly my favourite food in the world, there was no way I would allow myself to miss breakfast.

"Morning!" someone cheerful with long, curly blonde hair said.

My eyes were still waking up, so it took me a few moments to recognise her as Tammy.

"Morning," I said, but it probably sounded more like 'murhninh', as my voice was no more awake than my eyes.

Needless to say, I was not a morning person. It took me about ten minutes to wake up, which is why Tammy woke me up ten minutes before everyone else. I got out of bed at about the same time as every else, and went into the hygiene room.

I went into one of the shower cubicles as the last of my grogginess faded. I took off my bedclothes, and dumped them into the dry storage bin. I started showering, and after a few minutes relaxing under the water, I cut the stream off. I wrapped a towel around myself, and left the shower. I put my bedclothes into my locker, and took out my casual clothes. I headed back into the (now magically dry) shower cubicle I had used earlier and got dressed.

Five minutes later I was sitting at the Athena table in the dining pavilion. I possessed two bacon sandwiches and a huge smile. Another five minutes later I went to get more bacon sandwiches. Another five minutes later I was finished and four bacon sandwiches heavier. Minus the fat I cut off. Plus the weight of the orange juice I drunk. I stopped my mental track before I got too carried away.

After that I had nothing to do, as Sunday was a free day with no cabin activities. I looked around for my friend Kyle for a while, but couldn't find him. I looked for Leah after that, but couldn't find her either. I decided to look for my friend Garrick after I failed to find either of my best friends. I eventually found him in the forges, working on a shield.

"Hi Garrick," I said.

"Hello," Garrick said in his deep, rumbling voice.

I took a look at the shield he was making. It was in a perfect circle, with beautiful images carved into it. I could see the hideous, petrifying (literally) face of a Gorgon, Zeus' gigantic and ornate throne, a centaur on it hind legs with a bow in it's hands, the Minotaur roaring while grasping a greataxe, and a dozen more small design. Garrick was working on another, the largest by the looks of things, located dead in the middle.

"That's a really good shield," I commented.

"Thank you," Garrick said, "Certainly better than one of yours."

My shields almost always ended up looking like the moon; riddled with craters. Except the craters on my shields were made by piss-poor smithing skills, not asteroids.

"I don't think we can really consider them shields," I laughed.

"What word would you use?" Garrick asked.

I thought for a moment.

"Failures?" I said after a second or two.

"You were not born to work the forge," Garrick said.

"I don't know, I might be. I could make a good model of the moon," I said, in reference to my earlier mental comparison of my shields to the moon.

We talked for a while as Garrick finished his shield's designs and made a few final improvements. To finish it off, he fitted a layer of magically transparent metal over the front. It's purpose was to protect the designs from being marred by attacks.

"Care to help me test this?" Garrick asked, raising his shield.

"I'd be glad to," I said.

We headed to the amphitheater and I got a sword from the armoury. After that, we found an empty dueling circle and took our positions.

"You ready?" I asked, raising my sword.

"Come at me," Garrick answered.

I started out with a heavy blow, which Garrick blocked. I tried a few more 'power attacks' before switching to a series of quick light blows. I struck all around the edge, then thrusted straight at points on the shield. It took the entire beating without showing any signs of wear, except the tiniest of chips on the edge.

"A good shield, is it not?" Garrick said.

"That thing could take a cannon shot," I said in reply.

"Let's just hope it never has to," Garrick said, "Now, what shall we name it?"

"Little Timmy?" I joked.

"No, that doesn't work. But we could do something similar," Garrick said, "How about Big Ben?"

"That's a famous clocktower in London," I said.

"London?" Garrick asked.

"Capital of Britain. You know, the place with the top hats and tea?" I 'explained'.

"Oh, right," Garrick said, "Yeah, I remember hearing about that place."

After that we went separate ways, Garrick going to the camp gym that he had helped build two years ago. I on the other had, was headed for the computer suite. It the best looking building in the camp in my opinion, designed by my older half-sister Annabeth Chase.

I walked through the entrance door and was instantly greeted by refreshing, cool air.

'Oh, how I love air conditioning' I thought.

I found a computer, sat down in the chair in front of it, and typed in my username and password. My fingers were blurs as they raced across the keyboard, as fast as a cheetah. Well, maybe not quite that fast, but pretty damn fast nevertheless. It was assuredly faster than the log on time.

"Thirty two years of development and they still can't make the log on instant," I grumbled as I watched messages telling me that my personal settings for things I never personalised were being loaded.

Finally, after what felt like aeons, the log on screen was replaced by my desktop. I nearly punched the air in triumph.

I opened up Wave, the default internet Browser on Windows 9. It had replaced Internet Explorer, and had avoided the bad reputation of it's predecessor. I moved my mouse pointer to the search bar and clicked it. I moved my fingers to the keyboard, and then-

"BYYARGH!" someone shouted from behind me.

"Hello, Kyle," I said.

No one except Kyle would jump at me while shouting 'byargh', so I knew for a fact that it was Kyle I was talking to.

"Hi," Kyle said, sitting down at the computer next to mine, "What are you doing?"

"Using the computer," I said, sarcasm dripping from my tongue.

"Alex," Kyle fake-threatened.

"Using the internet," I said.

My tongue was a venomous snake, acrid sarcasm dripping from it's fangs.

"What are you doing on the internet?" Kyle said.

"Well, I just opened it, so literally nothing," I said.

"I overtook you at Quest of Zeus," Kyle bragged.

"That weird puzzle game?" I checked.

"Yes," Kyle said.

"How much by?" I said.

"Four levels," Kyle replied smugly.

I looked into Kyle's green eyes, which were partly covered by his dark blonde hair.

"Do you seriously think," I started, "That a difference of a mere four levels, will make any difference to me, when my mother is the personification of wisdom?"

There was silence for a second.

"Didn't think so," I said.

I proved my point by loading up the game, and steamrolling my way through several levels. My character, rendered in the blacks and oranges of ancient Greek pottery, ran around the screen. One level he was holding a mirror to a Gurgon. The next he was tricking a minotaur with a red flag. He moved on (under my command) to blasting down a column to make a bridge. As I kept clicked, he continued being awesome.

I beat seven levels, bringing me ahead of Kyle (who had been playing at the same time as me).

"Ha, I'm better than you," I said.

Kyle completed a puzzle, and then another, far faster than I had expected.

"I'm winning now," Kyle said.

I turned back to the computer screen, and fifteen minutes later, I was on the last level, with Kyle two levels behind me.

"Oh, look, little baby Kyle can't keep up," I said viciously.

I would've freely admitted that I was far too competitive, and in a nasty way.

However, I got stuck on the final level, and Kyle caught up. I realised I was over thinking the solution and finished the level at the same time as Kyle. Well, maybe I was a second or two ahead, but it was very close.

"Can we agree to call that a tie?" Kyle asked.

I thought for a moment before answering, trying to ignore the glory seeker in me, trying to be fair, "Sure."

I leaned back in my chair for a minute, then leaned forward again and typed 'Astroboy' into the search bar. It came up with a bunch of images of a cartoon toddler wearing underpants and rocket boots. On the inside, I laughed. Not just any laugh, though. It was an evil laugh, and a very good one in my humble opinion.

"Hey, Kyle," I said, "You're famous."

To someone who didn't know Kyle's parentage, that joke would have made no sense. But to Kyle and I, it had been as clear as a man's internet history when his wife's around, if you'll excuse the unusual simile. Kyle's mother was Urania, the muse of astronomy and astrology, or, if you wanted to simplify things, stars. Therefore, I used 'astroboy' as a taunt name for Kyle. Well, occasionally, as in, once in a blue moon, I used it endearingly. But mostly, I used it as a taunt name, because I was evil like that.

"What the- Oh, screw you, Alex," he said, looking at my screen.

"Sorry, I'm straight," I said out of habit.

I saw that it was almost lunch time and quickly logged off.

"Why are you logging off?" Kyle asked.

"Because," I said, "It's lunchtime."

Kyle logged off too and we went to lunch. When we got there, we went our separate ways. I set course to the Athena table, Kyle to the Muses table (some of the minor gods with few children had their tables and cabins grouped, to save space and avoid demigods getting lonely).

As I ate I joined in the conversation that was going on at the table. Apparently the Hermes cabin were planning a very big prank towards me and my half-siblings. Everyone had theories as to what the prank would be, and a few ideas on how to get revenge emerged. I put in a few ideas of mine.

Whatever ended up happening, it would not be an uneventful afternoon.

**A/N: Please review. It'll take only a minute, and make me so, so happy.**


	4. Fights of Prank and Bronze

**A/N: I like to talk to myself. That's what I'm doing here, in this Author's Note. No one has read this, clearly. So why I even bother is beyond me.**

**Version 2 of this chapter. I had one sentence with seven actions. Seven. It's gone now, don't worry. Thanks again to my reviewer!**

What I was expecting the prank to be was the Hermes cabin dying everyone's jeans pink. They hadn't done that in a while, and I saw one of them with a bottle of something, something I had assumed was pink dye. What I was not expecting was for the cabin to be filled with spiders.

So what happened?

The cabin was filled with spiders. Not just any spiders, but big, hairy spiders. So when some of the group went back to the cabin after lunch, they came out screaming. Everyone else went to take a look.

I opened the door, and stepped inside one step. Then I noticed all of the spiders, and ran away. All children of Athena were naturally scared of spiders, because spiders were out to get them. It's true. A long time ago, my mum turned a woman into a spider, and even now her descendants were out to get us.

"There's spiders in there all right," I said to everyone else who were waiting outside.

"How many?" Amy asked.

"Lots. Lots and lots of them," I answered.

"Where?" Amy said.

"In the cabin," I said, in the tone of voice I used to say 'duh'.

"Whereabouts in the cabin?" Amy asked, sounding annoyed.

"All over the floor," I said.

"I have an idea," Mark cut in, "We smoke them out."

The ensuing silence was as thick as Ares.

"You're saying we should set the cabin on fire?" Amy said.

"Yes," Mark said, "Why not?"

"All of our stuff's in there!" I exclaimed.

"And our beds," Martin (who I hadn't seen since Capture the Flag on Friday) said.

"And my perfume," Violet, one of my half-sisters said.

Everyone started to chip in.

"No, I don't mean normal fire," Mark said, then mumbled, "Idiots."

I decided to let the insult slide, and no one else had heard it.

"What kind of fire are you on about?" Amy asked.

"Magic fire," Mark said, "Get the Hecate kids to do it."

* * *

Spiders swarmed out of the cabin like they were running from Zeus himself. A few of them were lit up by mesmerising blue and green flames, turning their relatively small bodies to piles of smoking ash. Three children of Hecate stood a few meters away, their fingers dancing as they chanted in ancient Greek.

It was a beautiful sight to behold, dozens of our arch-enemies incinerated by the power of fire. Of course, it became a lot less beautiful to me when I realised me and my fellow children of Athena had paid for it by taking over all of the Hecate cabin's stable cleaning duties for the next month.

It was still damn satisfying to see the eight-legged terrors burn, though.

Once the spiders were exterminated and "thank you"s said, I noticed a group of Hermes children headed towards the lake. My mind whirred and I hatched a plan to get revenge on them. Tammy joined up to the plan straight away, and Mark joined after Tammy and I successfully persuaded him.

First we went to the Harpies' kitchens. Tammy distracted the Harpy cooks while Mark kept a look out. I snuck in through a window. I tiptoed my way around the rear of the room, and came to the cupboard labelled 'cake ingredients'. I tugged it open, and looked around inside. After a brief look through the cupboard, I found what I was looking for, yellow food dye. I took five packets and started to creep back out.

"Stop!" one of the Harpies shouted before swooping towards me.

'Damn it!' I cursed mentally.

The Harpy got close, so I dropped all the food dye packs but one. I took aim with the one pack I didn't drop, and threw it at the Harpy's face. I missed, but it still hit the Harpy's chest. An explosion of yellow powder burst into being, the yellow cloud obscuring the Harpy for a moment. She stalled in the air, then fell onto one of the worksurfaces. She landed on a blueberry pie, which exploded from the impact.

"Ha!" I shouted.

I scooped up the four remaining packs, then sprinted for the window I came in through. I hurled the dye through as I approached. I then clambered onto the worksurface and vaulted through the window. A small dust cloud was kicked up by my heavy landing on the dirt outside.

There was a crashing sound from inside, then the sound of dozens of glasses shattering at once. A Harpy screeched something obscene. A second later, Tammy dove through the window, covered in milk. Mark slammed the window shut before the Harpies could fly through it.

Due to a gory incident a couple of years ago, the inner handles on the windows and door had been remove. That way, the Harpies couldn't leave without someone letting them. Consequently, they couldn't chase me and my fellow pranksters.

After that, we headed back to the Athena cabin to change into swimming clothes. Tammy had a quick shower to clean the milk off of her. Once everyone was ready, we put the food dye in a bag with towels and headed down to the lake.

* * *

I pulled my swimming goggles over my head, wincing as they tugged at my hair, which was probably in need of a cut. My partners in crime did the same, and we all took a pack of food dye. Mark took the fourth.

"Everyone ready?" I asked.

"You bet. Oh, this is going to be so, so funny. This is going to be the best prank the camp has ever seen," Tammy said.

Mark's response was shorter, "Yes."

I dove into the water and took a look around. Percy Jackson was sitting at the bottom of the lake. A few campers I didn't know were playing water volleyball. Another group was playing Marco Polo. Half a dozen canoes were sailing around. A couple of pegasi riders were circling overhead. The Hermes cabin swimmers were maybe ten meters away from me. I started swimming towards them, going underwater three meters or so from them. I positioned myself underneath them. My heart raced as tore open the food dye pack in synchronisation with my two half-siblings. The dye was released as I started to speed away.

Two meters away I surfaced for breath, and swam as quick as I could a few more meters away. I turned around and mimed shock. What at? At what looked like one of Hermes' children taking a huge piss. Tammy pointed and shouted out, and soon the entire lake was laughing at (or being grossed out by) the Hermes campers. Even people on the banks of the lake and the Naiads were getting involved.

Meanwhile, Mark, Tammy and I were lying on the banks of the lake laughing our heads off. That prank could not have gone better. The Hermes campers were as red as tomatoes, possibly even redder. Although they all knew they hadn't done it, they each suspected their nearby half-siblings. The whole group was getting the blame.

I hadn't felt that proud of myself for a long time before.

* * *

A while later, I was walking through the woods, looking for a monster to fight. While doing so, I ran into Edward, son of Deimos, or possibly Phobos. We and Edward didn't exactly get along.

"What are you doing out here?" Edward asked.

"I could ask you the same question," I said.

"Just answer me, pussy," Edward said.

"What's in it for me?" I said.

"Not getting your face bashed in," Edward threatened.

"You don't scare me," I said defiantly.

His eyes flashed crimson red, and icy cold fear burst into my veins. I struggled to look away, trying to break eye contact. I tried to think how to defend myself from his powers. Then, an idea struck me. I pulled my swimming goggles from my pocket, (having stuck them there after my prank earlier), and put them on.

"You look stupid with that on," Edward snarled, "And without it."

"Well, the doctor slapped your mother when you were born," I said.

He had a large, red nose, and a wide face with low cheekbones and a high jaw.

"What did you just say about my mother?" Edward shouted.

"I said that the ugly bitch was punished for making something as hideous as you," I replied, realising too late I had hit a nerve.

Edward lunged at me, fist clenched, and I side-stepped. He was overextend, so I shoved him and he staggered off to the side. He attacked me again, going for a left hook. I ducked under the blow. I could hear the air moving above my head. He grabbed my arm, and I thrusted forwards, kneeing him where it hurts. A cry of pain rang through the forest.

"Back off, dipshi-" I started, but was cut off by a fist to the nose.

I staggered away, crimson blood trailing from my nose. Edward drew his mace and swung it at me while I was distracted. I hit the dirt to avoid it, and the ensuing dust cloud stung my eyes as I scrambled back to my feet. My sword rang as I drew it from it's sheathe. If he was going to use weapons, so was I.

He arced his mace towards me, and I sprang to the side before swiping at his arm. He span to face me and pushed my arm down and to the side, leaving my sword stuck in the dirt. My muscles screamed as I put all my strength into pulling the sword free. I wasn't fast enough, and Edward's mace struck my back.

I couldn't breathe or think. I could barely see or feel anything either. My senses remained just strong enough to let me know I was sprawled on the ground. I stayed as still as I could, playing unconscious. Edward didn't fall for my ruse, and his boot struck my side. I cried out in pain. My nerves partially shut down, leaving me able to think straight. My emergency dagger was sheathed underneath my armour, on my back. My fingers found it as they reached behind my back, and I drew it free.

I let out another cry of pain as Edward's boot found my face. My nose, mouth and jaw were sticky and wet with blood. He raised his boot for another stab. Adrenaline pumped through my brains. My dagger gleamed in my hand. I stabbed at the underside of his foot. The blade pushed straight through the sole. I vaguely noticed my hand was being sprayed with blood.

I pulled my dagger free, and slashed across the front of Edward's legs. I swung the blade again and again. As fell over in pain, I struggled to find my magical, healing ambrosia. I found a chunk of it just outside my pocket on the floor. I grabbed it and shoved it down my throat. The cut that left my nose bleeding sealed. The bruises emerging on my face faded away. My pain left me, and I was able to stand.

Edward was lying on the ground in pain. The wounds I had delivered him had left him unable to stand. I felt bad about that. I had been wrong to insult his mother without knowing his family was clearly a taboo subject for him. Sure, he had been beating the crap out of me, but deep down, I knew I kind of deserved it. I forced myself not to think about the moral side of things. I was in danger, and I protected myself.

A hellhound howled in the distance, and I realised if it or some other monster found Edward, the demigod wouldn't last five seconds. There was no way I could let that happen. Even if he_ was_ swearing and spitting at me. I threw the last of my ambrosia on the floor just in front of him. It wasn't much; just enough to get him able to run again.

After that, I retrieved my sword from where it had fallen earlier. With it once again sheathed, I decided I was no longer in the mood to fight monsters. That's when I discovered I had lost all sense of direction. I had no idea which way I had to go to get out of the woods and back into camp.

Three, or maybe even four hours of wandering later, I finally got back to camp. It was getting dark, and I was exhausted from everything that had happened in the day, so I headed straight to my cabin. I showered, relaxing as the warm water poured down on me. I loved the feeling of it running over my body and dripping to the shower floor. It was pure bliss.

After my shower, I dried myself off quickly. I donned my bedclothes with just as much speed, and climbed into my bunkbed. A minute later I was asleep.

**A/N: A bit dark near the end there, yeah. Please, please, please, if you have a soul or some scrap of humanity, please review!**


	5. A New Week

**A/N: This chapter's got a large conversation that I hope will characterise Alex and his two best friends more. I've decided to change Kyle's character a little to be more over the top. In a good way, I hope. It also has lots of action. **

Monday morning was possibly the most dull morning at Camp Half-Blood for a child of Athena. Porridge was the only thing for breakfast. The first session was stable cleaning, the next ancient Greek, and third session was canoeing.

Canoeing might not sound awful, but in the past Poseidon hated Athena. Although the hatred had died down to mere dislike due to Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, Poseidon still didn't like Athena's children in his domain. Unfortunately that extended to pretty much every body of water.

All in all, it was a pretty shit morning.

Lunch was far better though. It was only a small meal, toasted cheese sandwiches. I chose to have sun dried tomatoes and chili pepper in mine. They were absolutely, undeniably delicious. The Harpies could sure cook, even if their kitchen was raided by a trio of demigods. When I had heard that story spreading, I played dumb. Thankfully, nobody suspected me, nor my partners in crime.

Because the meal was small, it only took up a small portion of the forty-five minute lunch break. That mean I got a chance to see my friends. After finishing my meal, I saw Leah had finished her own meal at around the same time. Perfect! I went to talk to her.

"Hey, Alex," she said as I approached.

"Hi," I said, "What's up?"

"The sky," Leah 'answered'.

"That's my joke," I said.

"What can I say? I'm a thief," joked Leah.

"Do I need to watch my wallet?" I said.

"You don't have a wallet," Leah said.

"Not anymore," I laughed, "And you're a confessed thief."

"Are you implying I stole your wallet?" Leah asked, arcing an eyebrow.

"Maybe," I said.

"Well, I would never steal your wallet," Leah said, "I'm not skilled enough."

"I'm sure you could get the Hermes bunch to educate you," I pointed out.

"Do you _want_ me to steal your wallet?" asked Leah.

"I don't have a wallet, this is all purely hypothetical," I said.

There was silence for a moment.

"So have you done anything interesting recently?" I asked.

"Not that much, no. Some weird Hermes kid wet themselves in the lake though, and that was amusing," Leah said.

I laughed, "They didn't actually. It was food dye."

"Why do you think that?" said Leah.

"Because it was my evil masterplan," I said with a smile.

"Seriously?" Leah said.

"Seriously," I confirmed.

"Well, that's an amazing prank. Well done!" Leah said.

We high fived, and as we did, Kyle walked over.

"Alright Kyle?" I asked.

"Yeah, you?" Kyle said.

"I'm good thanks," I said.

"Mark told me that you were behind the Hermes kids apparently pissing themselves," Kyle said.

"That is true, it was food dye," I said, "Am I awesome?"

"Yes, you are," Kyle said.

"Oh, do I not interest you anymore?" Leah asked.

"Bros before hoes," Kyle blurted out.

We both laughed, and went to high five. Unfortunately, we both ended up shooting into each other. Leah had clearly increased our acceleration. We both fell to the floor as Leah laughed.

"Ow," I said, sitting up and rubbing my forehead.

"Bros before hoes," Leah quoted.

"It's just a joke, Leah," I said.

"Yeah, calm down," Kyle added.

Leah helped Kyle and I to our feet.

"Well, we're even now," Leah said, "Okay?"

"Well..." Kyle started.

"Yes," I said before Kyle could get us back into the frying pan.

"So what sessions do you boys have next?" Leah asked after a brief silence.

"Combat Training," I said at the exact same time as Kyle.

"Really?" I asked Kyle, "Guess we'll be fighting each other."

"I might join in then," Leah said, "I've got a free session, and nothing better to do."

I sniffed, then teased, "I disagree."

Leah punched me lightly on the arm, "Meanie."

"I have no soul," I joked.

'Just like Edward has no sole on his shoe,' a small voice in my mind said.

'Shut up, it was self defence,' the rest of my mind replied.

"Why not buy some new shoes then? You'd look good in UGG boots," Kyle joked.

"Or maybe high heels," Leah said.

"And a mankini," Kyle said, "Don't forget the mankini."

"Alternatively, I could kill myself," I said, shuddering at the image of myself in a mankini.

"Aww, don't do that," Leah said, "Things would get boring without you."

"Plus, only you known the password to your iPad," Kyle pointed out.

I looked at him in a way that said more than words.

"What? That thing's amazing!" Kyle said.

The conch horn blew to signal the end of lunch, and I proposed a race to the amphitheater. Kyle and Leah agreed, and we lined up. I shouted "go", and everyone started running. Kyle started to gain ground, but I managed to stay ahead of Leah. Then Leah upped her acceleration via her control of force and blurred away into the amphitheater. Just to rub it in, she ran back to the start and did it again before Kyle and I had even finished our first 'lap'.

"I think I win," Leah said.

"I disagree," I challenged.

"Huh? Why?" said Leah.

"Because," I stepped through the entrance to the amphitheater, "you stopped right before entering."

Kyle laughed, and we high fived. After that, I walked over to my cabinmates. Kyle, on the other hand, joined an assortments of minor gods' children. There were maybe seventeen demigods in that team. Leah talked her way into that group. I turned my attention to my own group, which included my own half-siblings and the Apollo cabin.

"I defer leadership to you, m'lady," the leader of the Apollo cabin said to Amy in an overacted and overly dramatic fashion.

"Alright, Martin, you're in charge," Amy said.

"Ok," Martin said, sliding into strategic master mode, "They've got a lot of mixed abilities on that team. But they all seem to have gone for short range weapons, so a good way to counter that would be to have archers pound them from behind a defensive line. That plays into Apollo's strengths, and Athena can hold them back."

"Martin, they've got a daughter of Bia on their team, she'll be able to reverse any arrow volleys. Remember she did that in capture the flag?" I said.

"That could be problematic, so we'll have to put her out of the fight early. The fastest two archers from the Apollo cabin will have to go around the flanks and fire at her from opposite directions while a third takes a direct shot," Martin theorised.

"Won't the enemy's forces block the third shooter's shot?" Violet, a half sister of mine, asked.

"The shooter will be a son or daughter of Apollo, so they should be able to pull it off," said Martin.

After another minute or so of tactical debating, a plan was made and people assigned roles. I donned my armour and a standard issue helmet. That was armour covered. For equipment, I took a shield and spear. I also sheathed a sword and attached it to my belt, just in case. My body was encased in celestial bronze armour, and a shield was on my arm. I took my position in the defensive line that was forming.

The battle began and a volley of arrows rained down on the enemy force. They stopped in midair and shot off into the sky. The enemy team cheered and charged us. A child of Apollo sprinted around the left flank. Meanwhile, another darted by on the right. They took their shots at Leah, as well as a guy behind me. Leah blocked the arrows from the sides, but the one from behind me struck her left knee. The knockout poison left her unconscious on the dirty sand floor.

Part of the enemy charged broke off to take out our two flanking archers, while the rest of the charge came into range. I thrusted my spear. I bounced off of a domed shield. A deadly sharp javelin shot towards my head. I ducked it. An enemy cursed somewhere.  
I slammed my shield into the guy in front of me. I then stabbed under my shield and hit the guy's knee through his denim jeans. He went unconscious. That was the good news. That bad news was the big guy with no top and a colossal hammer who took his place.

My shield cracked along the top after one hammer blow. The second knocked a chunk off, and hurt my arm. After the third blow, it fell completely apart. I backed away, drawing my sword. The hammer man chased after me. I ducked his wild hammer swing and slashed at his chest. Sparks flew as my blade slid along his chestplate harmlessly. He swung his hammer downwards and I was hit in the shoulder. I tumbled to the ground as he rose his hammer for the knockout blow. Amongst the clanging and shouting and yelling of the battle, no one noticed.

Just then, Tammy backed away from the defensive line and accidentally slammed into the hammer guy's back. He staggered, having been poorly balanced. Seeing my chance, I got to my feet as fast as I could. Tammy drew her sword and stabbed the hammer guy in his side. She then turned back to the person who forced her back from the (now nearly completely shattered) defensive line. It was Kyle, and he was fighting well. Tammy blocked a blow, and countered. Kyle sidestepped and cut Tammy down.

I stepped forwards and swung my sword at Kyle, who saw it in time and blocked. He thrusted his blade at me, but I moved my shield to stop it. Our arms and equipment formed a rectangle shape from the side.

"Hi," he said, "Wassup, dude?"

"Just trying to chop a fool up, you?" I replied as we fought.

"Same," he replied, kicking for my knee.

I caught his foot with my free left hand and tugged his leg up, causing him to fall to the ground. I swung my sword down. Luckily for him, he somehow managed to pull his leg free and kick my sword out of my hand. The nerves in my knee lit up as he kicked me there, causing me to fall to the floor. He prepared to bring his blade down on me, but I caught his arm and wrestled in for it. We ended up in a compromising position.

"Oooh, I like the position," I joked.

I was secure enough in my sexuality to make that kind of joke, so why would I not?

"Maybe we should use it again tonight?" Kyle played along.

"Or maybe," I said, then flipped us over and pulled the sword free, "We do this instead?"

I raised the sword. He grabbed a dagger from the floor. I swung the sword downwards. Kyle's new dagger arced through the air. It sliced across my arm. My sword fell to the ground beside Kyle as I fell unconscious on top of him.

* * *

I woke up shortly after the battle. Clearly Camp Half-Blood had gotten a fresh batch of Knockout Poison Antidote brewed.

"Did we win?" I asked Violet, who was holding a now empty antidote vial to my mouth.

"Yes, just about," Violet said, "They broke the defensive line, but by then there were few enough for the Apollo people to take them on and win."

The cacophonous sound of the conch horn reverberated through the air, calling for every camper to assemble in the dining pavilion. Whenever that happened, there was always some kind of news or announcement. It was rarely good news.

**A/N: ****_DUNH DUNH DUN_****H. This is the first chapter written to try to fit a reviewer's feedback more! I'm so happy I have a reviewer now, but as they say, all good things come in twos. Or threes, I'm not sure. So please leave a review! **


	6. The Nightmare

**A/N: Sorry this took so long, I've been busy recently. On the bright side, at least this part introduces the main plot.**

Dark clouds drifted through a sky that was bathed in a sinister crimson tint. The sun was just vanishing behind a range of silhouetted mountains in the distance. Strong winds raged in the sky, twisting and turning and buffeting the ground below with currents of moving air. A dim light was glowing within one of the turbulent clouds.

The light grew brighter and brighter, until it was unbearable to look at. I tried to look away, but my eyes were fixed on it. Suddenly, the light vanished in an explosion of mystical energy. Rays of heavenly energy shot in every direction. The beams searing burning paths through the ground and sky.

Where there had once been the cloud with the light, there was now a figure. My eyes slipped off of it every time I tried to focus on him or her. The sun was raising one second, the next framing the figure in light, and finally it had sunk below the horizon again. It cycled fast, illuminating the chaotic scene of the forest below the figure being devastated by gale-force winds.

The figure started to chant in some ancient language. As it did so, he air around it became somehow fuzzy and indistinct. The winds reached their peak, uprooting almost the entire forest. The planet was orbiting the sun so fast the constantly changing sky was never the same for even a moment. The figure chanted it's final word, and...

* * *

I woke up drenched in my own sweat. Inky black darkness surrounded me, broken only by the glaring red digits on my alarm clock. I was burning under my covers, so I threw them off. Cool air assailed me. My body temperature dropped from the high level it had spiked to during my nightmare.

After a minute or two or sitting in my bed, I decided I needed to get some fresh air to calm me down. Fresh air always helped me after nightmares. I tried to be silent as I climbed down the bunkbed's ladder. It was four in the morning, and if I woke anyone up... Well, let's just say I would be in a not inconsiderable amount of trouble.

I slipped into the Hygiene Room, in search of a hoodie. I opened my locker, and took out a plain black hoodie. I pulled it on, in addition to some trainers. I headed out of my cabin and walked into the woods. Eventually I ended up near Zeus' Fist, a collection of boulders that looked like a fist from one angle, and a pile of crap from any other. Unfortunately, Chiron wouldn't let us call it Poop Pile.

I climbed up the lowest boulder, then grabbed the top of a middle height one. I hauled myself up onto it. I then jumped onto a slightly higher one. Finally, I hauled myself onto the top of the tallest boulder. I sat down there carefully, and looked out over the woods surrounding Camp Half-Blood. I swung my legs absentmindedly, relaxing in the cool breeze.

After a few minutes, I turned my attention to the nightmare that had awoken me. The skies had been going crazy. Then one cloud glew gold, and some kind of figure emerged. Pain lanced through my mind, and I gripped my head in pain. I shook my head to clear it. Once the pain was gone, I thought about the figure again. The pain returned.

'This can't be natural," I thought through the pain.

How could I decipher what my nightmare meant when some kind of external power was blocking my way? I needed to find a way around it. Was it me thinking of the figure? Could I view the rest of the dream in my mind? I tried, and learned that I could. It didn't help much though, as there was nothing I could see that could hint at what the figure was.

A few minutes passed as I sat on the rock, observing the woods. Tall, dark trees casted long shadows in the moonlight. Birds flew through the wood, dodging around branches and diving to catch prey. Bushes lurked in the darkness, rustling as dozens of small creatures darted around within and around them. A small, peaceful stream was barely visible from where I sat on the boulder.

After a few more tries at discerning more details about the figure, I gave up and headed back to the Athena cabin. I put my trainers and hoodie back in my locker, and climbed into my bed. Five minutes or so later, I was asleep.

* * *

I woke up a lot quicker than usual later that morning. I guessed it was because I hadn't had to to become deeply asleep again. I went through my usual morning routine, checking the steps off in my head as I went. Wake up. Go to shower. Strip. Shower. Dry myself. Wrap towel around self. Get clothes. Return to shower. Get dressed.

I ate my breakfast half halfheartedly. Cereal wasn't my favourite food, but at least it wasn't eggs. I hated eggs, with a burning passion. After I sated my hunger, I visited the little boy's room to 'drop the kids off at the pool' as they say. With kids being a metaphor for crap, and the pool being the toilet. I realised there was no point in using phrases if I explained them in depth immediately afterwards at that point.

The first session of the morning was a free session for children of Athena, so I decided to find one of my friends and join whatever session they were in. Unless it was blacksmithing. Then I'd find something else to do.

"Hey, Alex!" a familiar voice called out from not too far away.

I turned to face Leah. I could see tiredness in her eyes.

"Hi," I called back, "What's up?"

Leah walked up to me and answered in a quiet tone.

"I had a demigod nightmare," she said.

That explained why she look tired.

"Really? So did I," I said.

Kyle walked over at that moment.

"Hey, watcha talking about?" he said.

"We've both had demigod nightmares," I explained.

"Oh, so did I," Kyle said, "Weird coincidence, huh?"

I slammed my open palm to my forehead in a perfect facepalm. When you were a demigod, nothing's a coincidence.

"Kyle, there's no way it's a coincidence," Leah said.

"It might be. We could've had different dreams," Kyle said.

"What was your's about, then?" I said.

"Well, there was a bunch of storms, and then this glowing guy appeared, and the skies went all crazy, and he started speaking in some ancient language," Kyle answered.

"That's the nightmare I had," Leah said.

"Same," I said, "So it's not a coincidence."

"You never know," Kyle said.

"Kyle," Leah and I said at the same time, "It's not a coincidence."

As soon as I realised we'd said the same thing, I opened my mouth to speak again.

"Jinx," Leah said.

"Damn it," I cursed.

Leah smiled devilishly and punched me in the arm, the punishment for breaking the jinx.

"Ow," I jokingly said, the punch not having hurt at all.

"You just got owned by a girl," Kyle said.

Leah flicked her hand and Kyle ended up floating ten feet in the air.

"I just got owned by a girl too," Kyle said.

Leah let him drop to the ground, where he landed with a thud.

"We get so off topic," I pointed out.

"You don't say," said Kyle as he stood up.

"But, back on the subject of our demigod nightmares," I said, "Have either of you tried thinking about who the figure is?"

"I tried, but then my head hurt," Kyle said.

Leah nodded in agreement.

"Well, I've been thinking about that, and I thought if we get one of Morpheus' kids to help, maybe we could get around it?" I said.

Both of my friends agreed it was worth a try, but before we went Leah had Ancient Greek and Kyle had Footracing. I decided to join Kyle in his session, as I wouldn't get a chance to talk to Leah in Ancient Greek. I felt a pang of disappointment as I parted ways with Leah. It was probably because I couldn't be with both of my friends, but I wasn't sure.

I walked up to the Wood Nymph in charge of the footracing session.

"Um, excuse me, miss?" I asked.

"Yes?" the Nymph asked, turning to face me.

"Can I join this session?" I asked.

"Of course," she said.

After a few twenty meter sprints, I finally got a chance to talk to Kyle.

"Do you have any theories?" I asked.

"About what?" Kyle said.

I resisted the urge to facepalm.

"About the 'glowing guy'," I said, quoting his earlier name for the figure in our shared demigod nightmare.

"Maybe it's Zeus?" Kyle said.

"What," I said flatly.

"Just pulling your leg," Kyle laughed.

"Ha ha," I said, my voice devoid of humour or amusement.

The session came to the end after Kyle and I had a long conversation about Flying Pigs. I had no idea how the conversation ended up that way, but with Kyle and I, it was to be expected. It was only a little more interesting to me than the two sessions that followed, both with my half-siblings. Swordplay was fairly fun; I picked up a few new moves. Rock Climbing was quite good too.

After devouring my lunch, Olive Pizza, I linked up with Kyle and Leah and together we went to the Morpheus and Hypnos Cabin. I was nervous, scared almost, of what I might find.

"Here goes nothing," I said to myself.

I raised my hand and knocked on the door.

**A/N: So, I'm back! Please leave a review if you enjoyed, and if yo didn't enjoy it all the more reason to review!**


	7. So It Begins

**A/N: My summer holiday is over now, so my updates might be a little less frequent than once a day. On the bright side, I'll be in English lessons and the quality of my writing should hopefully improve. **

The inside of the Hypnos and Morpheus Cabin was nothing like what I expected. I expected some kind of surreal dream magic would be floating around inside, and hammocks would be being slept on all over the place. Instead, there was two rows of beds. People slept on the memory foam mattresses, snoring. Glasses of milk were on the tables at the ends of the beds.

There was only one awake person in there, other than me and my two friends, of course. A guy maybe two years my senior was sitting on his bed, reading a book. I tried to read the name from the cover, but my dyslexia messed up my chances of that. He looked up from his book as I walked in.

"Hello, I've been expecting you three," he said, putting down the book and standing up.

"Uh... what?" I asked, slightly creeped out.

"You three all had the same demigod nightmare, and when that happens, people come to me," he said, "I'm Jake Roan, son of Hypnos."

He extended his hand. I shook it.

"I'm Alex Lloyd, my friends are Kyle Fletcher and Leah Thornton. So, do you know anything about the nightmare?" I said.

"No more than you do, I expect," Jake said, "I'm assuming you get a major headache whenever you try to think about the figure in it?"

"Yeah, we all do," Kyle said.

"I had a theory that if you could project it onto an Iris Message-" I started.

"I've tried that, but the figure blocked it. Whatever it is, it's clearly mightier than the gods," Jake said.

Thunder rumbled angrily in the sky. Zeus had a habi of making that happen whenever he disagreed with a demigod.

"Yeah, whatever," Jake mumbled in reply to Zeus' thunder, "Anyway, based off of the shit that was going on, the figure has control over the sky, wind storms, magic, the heavens, drama, whatever."

I was rapidly warming up to Jake.

"We're going to need a quest, aren't we?" Leah asked.

"That seems incredibly likely," Jake answered.

"But how will we know what to do?" I said.

"We'll hunt for clues. Like Scooby Doo," Kyle said.

"Only you could compare this to Scooby fricking Doo," I sighed.

"If you'll stop getting off topic, I may have a solution," Jake said.

Everyone's attention turned to him.

"The dream came from somewhere, somewhere not inside the million billion neurons inside each of our brains," he continued.

I resisted the urge to point out that we have a hundred billion neurons each, not a million billion. There would be no point to doing so, after all.

"Can you find where?" I asked instead.

"Possibly," Jake said.

He sat cross legged on the floor, and closed his eyes. A faint white glow was visible through his eyelids, and his head turned towards the roof. His body shook briefly, and then was (mostly) still again. He stood up and brushed a bit of dust from his jeans.

"I can't tell exactly where. Some kind of power tried to stop me, and I could only hold it back so long," Jake said, "But what I do know is that it came from the west."

"So we just go west and hope we find something?" Leah asked, "Not the best plan ever."

"I'll be able to pinpoint where exactly it is eventually," Jake said, "Until then, you three should just go west."

"Us three?" I said, "What about you?"

"Quests are always for three," Jake said.

"Not always," I argued, "I think four went into the labyrinth around ten years ago."

"Well, I'm not a questing person," Jake countered, "I'd be more useful staying here and doing research."

"I guess that makes sense," I said.

"I see a problem," Kyle said, "What if we go too far west?"

"Then we turn around," I sarcastically replied.

* * *

Although I hadn't been given a quest yet, it was beyond obvious that I was going to. Therefore, I started packing as soon as I'd gone through the rest of the day's activities (pistol shooting, the Hecate cabin's stable cleaning, and Ancient Greek) and had tea.

First I worried about how I'd eat and drink on the quest. I collected my mortal money from it's hiding place and visited the camp store. I'd probably be refunded fully once the quest was given, but even if I wasn't, I'd still be good for money. I had a _huge_ stash. I brought;

-Two vacuum flasks, to store water in and stop it from getting warm. I preferred my water cold.  
-A hexi stove, a kind of small, easily portable cooker. I also brought three packs of hexamine tablets to fuel it.  
-A mess tin. With the way a hexi stove worked, I'd need one to cook and eat from.  
-A box of matches. A hexi stove and fuel for it was all well and good, but if I couldn't light it, it would be useless.

I didn't get any food from the store. I could just steal some from the Harpies. I'd seen the dumpsters outside their kitchens, they let huge amounts of food go off, so stealing from them wouldn't hurt the Camp in any way.

Second on my list of things to deal with was protection. All demigods had a scent that could be detected by monsters. Obviously, this resulted in monsters constantly attacking all demigods not in Camp Half Blood. I didn't feel like being monster food, so equipping myself was vital.

A brief visit to the armoury left me with;

-A two foot, three inch long celestial bronze sword. It'd make short work of any monsters I ran into, but pass straight through monsters.  
-A Kel Tec P-32 pistol. It was small and easy to conceal, and modified to take bullets of half copper, half celestial bronze. The bullets would harm both monsters and mortals.  
-A Swiss Army Knife, a wonderful little tool with uses too numerous to name. I would never even consider leaving camp without it.

'What else do I need?' I asked myself silently, 'Oh, of course. Clothes!'

I took some clothes from my wardrobe. I took out four t-shirts, all but one of my non Camp Half Blood t-shirts, in fact. I suspected that a 'uniform' would not be a smart thing to wear. Then I packed two pairs of jeans to wear on my legs. After that, I put plenty of underwear into the pile, along with some pjamas. Last, but not least, was two tins of deodorant.

I ran back to the Camp store before it closed to buy what I had forgotten earlier, a backpack, sleeping bag, shrinking charm and some cutlery. I packed the cutlery and half my cooking stuff into one of the side pockets. The rest of my cooking stuff went into the other side pocket. The webbing on the back of the backpack was used to hold my vaccum flask.

I put the sleeping charm (made by the Hecate cabin) into my sleeping bag, making it the size of my fist. I packed it into the bottom of my bag along with my clothes. They shrunk a little, and so did the bag, but most of the charms' magic was used up shrinking my sleeping bag.

The only thing left to do was raid the Harpies' kitchens. With their security increased after my recent prank, that would be difficult.

* * *

The moon was a glowing orb in the sky, granting some faint illumination to me as I snuck up on the Harpies' kitchens. I made a mental note to thank Artemis for the light at breakfast tomorrow morning. I crawled into some bushes, wincing as their prickly leaves sliced at me. A Harpy flew overhead, but didn't see me, partly due to the bushes, partly to my hard to see outfit.

I was wearing a long black sleeved t-shirt, black gloves, an ebony beanie hat, dark jeans, and black trainers. I was also wearing a black piece of thin fabric that completely obscured my face. It was meant to be tied into a scarf or bandanna, but I found it far more useful to use it as a mask. I could see through it, but people couldn't see me from the other side. It was brilliant.

I came to the window I had used for my earlier prank, and stealthily pulled it open. None of the Harpies inside noticed. I climbed through the portal and hurried to hide behind a work surface. I hurried along, checking all the small cupboards for tinned food or MREs.

Eventually, I hit the jackpot with a cupboard holding bags of tinned food, all held in bags with shrinking charms. I took six, filling my arms. Within a minute I was climbing back out of the kitchens. I closed the window behind me and crept along back to where I put my backpack. I dumped all six packs into it, and returned to my cabin.

I grabbed my final supplies from my personal cupboard. My iPad, it's charger, and half a dozen BatPaks. BatPaks were small, rectangle batteries that could be plugged into an iPad to charge it up. They were single use, unlike chargers, but also unlike chargers, didn't need another power source.

But why would I need an iPad, some might have asked. Well, it was my map, compass, method of communication, stopwatch, flashlight, source of entertainment, and so much more, all in one. To make it even better, it was in a fully waterproof case I had paid the Hecate kids to enchant with protection from impact, blade, venom and flame. Overkill, maybe, but there was no way I was risking it getting destroyed.

* * *

For some reason, Jake decided to go and get the quest from Chiron at five in the morning, meaning Leah had floated me out from my cabin to wake me up by six. I was pretty damn grumpy about it, but I got over it fairly quickly.

I headed back into my cabin to get dressed into my theft clothes. I put the beanie and 'mask' into my backpack instead of wearing them, and rolled my sleeves up to my elbows. I headed back out, giving two packs of the tinned food to Leah and the other two to Kyle, who Leah had woken while I was dressing.

Argus gave us all a ride into Manhattan, New York City. As we got out of the re-purposed strawberry van, we all knew our quest had started.

**END OF ACT I - PEACEFUL TIMES**

**A/N: So it begins. Please leave a review. I'm especially interested to know what you thought of the way I wrote Jake and how the story flows. So please, make my day and review.**


	8. First Contact

**A/N: It's time for the longest chapter yet, the introduction to Act 2. Aren't you lucky?**

**ACT II - The Quest That Changed Everything**

The rancid odour of gone-off food and discarded diapers assailed my nose as I walked through the back alleys of New York City. It was definitely an unwelcome visitor, much like the rats that scurried past my feet and into the garbage bags lining the narrow passage. The lighting was poor, too. Very little sunlight managed to break through the gap between the high rise flats that hemmed me in. All in all, it was not a very pleasant place. Therefore, the conversation Kyle, Leah and I were having was also not very pleasant.

"I told you the bus station was to the left!" Kyle said.

"It was not!" I argued.

"If it wasn't to the left then I'm Japanese," Kyle said.

"Kon'nichiwa, kairuha, hontō no nihonjindesu ka. Sore wa watashiniha odorokidesu.?" I said, using my limited knowledge of Japanese.

"What's that in English?" Kyle asked.

"Hello, Kyle, are you really Japanese? I am surprised," I said.

"Then my reply is no," Kyle said, using a fake Japanese accent for the last word.

"Then you lied about-" I started.

"You're both wrong," Leah said, "It was to the right."

"There was a DEAD END to the right, so obviously not," I said.

"I could've floated you over," Leah said, "I have powers more useful than talking to Owls, you know."

"Well, um, Kyle's scared of heights," I bluffed as my cheeks glowed red with embarrasment.

"I'm a Demigod of Space, that's as high as you can get!" Kyle complained.

"Stars, not Space," I said.

"What's the difference?" Kyle asked.

"Well, Space is an area containing no particles, whereas Stars are fission powered balls of gas _in _space, made by the gods," I answered, knowing it was a rhetorical question but not caring.

"He said Space," Leah said, "Not a vacuum."

"Who's side are you on?" I moaned.

"The best side," Leah said, "Team Leah."

"It's pronounced worst," I said.

"No, that's Team Alex you're thinking of," Leah taunted.

"Worst at being stupid, maybe," I retorted.

The conversation continued in that way for another ten minutes. After that, I heard something behind us. When I turned to look, there was nothing there.

"Alex, why are you looking back?" Leah asked.

"Yeah, never look back," Kyle chipped in.

"I thought I heard something, but I guess it's nothing," I said, turning back to my friends.

I was wrong.

"DIE, HEATHEN!" came the cry from behind a bin.

A man sprinted out from behind it. He was wearing tattered blue jeans and a dark brown Hoodie. In his left hand was a Kitchen Knife, in his right, a baseball bat. I could see hate glowing in his eyes, but little else. That was due to the fact his face was mostly obscured by his hood.

I drew my emergency knife from it's concealed holster on my back. It flashed in my hand as I drew it, but the hooded guy pounced before I could get ready and swung his baseball bat. I ducked under it. He thrusted his knife forwards. I moved mine to block. I could tell I would be too slow.

I braced for the pain, but it never came. The guy shot backwards, into one of his friends who was rushing to join him. My eyes turned to Leah, who had her palm outstretched.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem," Leah said, "I prefer you alive to dead."

"I feel so touched," I replied.

More of the Hooded Guys were pouring in from an adjacent alleyway, wielding a variety of improvised weapon. One was even holding a celestial bronze sword. That brought many questions rushing into my mind.

Kyle clenched his fist, then thrusted his arm forwards. A miniature star shot forwards, striking one of the guys in the chest. The front of his hoodie caught fire and burnt away faster than a hot knife through butter. His chest was covered in nasty looking burns. His friends looked nervous, and backed away.

"Impressive, eh?" Kyle asked, drawing his own emergency dagger.

"You're a child star," I joked, getting into a combat stance.

Leah stifled a laugh, and Kyle just groaned. He'd heard that joke from me a lot more than just once. Twenty times would be a closer estimate.

One of the guys, the one with the celestial bronze sword, thrusted his weapon towards me. I pushed the tip to the side with a well timed parry. I swung my dagger back towards him, and the half mortal, half godly blade sliced a cut across his upper torso. He fell to his knees in pain and I kicked him in the face.

Another of my assailants leapt over his unconscious body and swung a hatchet downwards towards me. I stepped to the side in a well practiced manner. He leapt back away from my counter attack, then stepped back in with an arcing axe swing. I hit the back of my hand and I dropped my dagger in pain. He followed up by left hooking me in the face. Sticky crimson blood flew from my nose.

He suddenly shot fifty feet into the air and stayed there. Leah had saved my life two times in as many minutes. However, she'd left her side open to attack. I tackled the guy who was about to skewer her like a kebab. We both fell to the floor and he dropped the sharpened metal bar that served as his spear. I got up quicker than him and kneed him in the face. Teeth broke off and my knee was showered with blood.

Kyle's dagger shot past my head and impaled a guy in the shoulder. Kyle followed his weapon a second later, pulling it free but depositing a miniature star in the newly opened wound. The guy staggered back, roaring in pain before going into shock and falling unconscious shortly afterwards.

I was without a mortal weapon, so I drew my celestial bronze sword. If my enemy was using them, surely they had godly blood and were susceptible to the blade? I charged into the fight, swinging my weapon straight through someone. Ok, maybe I was wrong. I backed away quickly. Thankfully, I could still use the sword defensively. A gnarled wooden club complete with poorly inserted nails swung towards me, and I blocked it. My sword cut halfway through the enemy weapon.

"Who the fuck are you?" I growled.

"I am a servant of the Heavens, an agent of the Cult." the said replied monotonously, like he was reading from a script.

"If you serve the Gods, why are you attacking us?" I said, struggling to hold the mad club wielder back.

"I do not serve the gods, Heathen," he said, lashing at me with a kick.

With my left hand, I caught his leg just above the foot. I raised it above my head and he fell to the ground. I stomped on his chest, hard. The move would hopefully put him out of the fight without causing any permanent harm. Maybe then I could interrogate him after the skirmish, and learn more about the 'Cult' and it's Cultists.

More of the Cultists poured into the fight as I though that. One of them had an Assault Rifle in his hands. He raised it to his shoulder, took aim down the iron sights, and fired. His bullets narrowly missed Kyle, who rolled behind a bin. Leah floated a bin in front of herself (well, adjusted it's acceleration to get it there and adjusted gravity to keep it in place, but it looked like floating) as the rifleman switched targets. He switched targets once more. I found myself staring straight at the rifle. It was staring back.

I hit the dirt and the weapon's deadly ammunition shot past my head narrowly. I felt the shockwave against my hair. I reached to my concealed holster (craftily hidden under my black waterproof jacket, on the neon green interior) and drew my Kel Tec pistol. The rifleman adjusted his aim to be on me, and I rolled to the side. Sparks flew from the concrete where I was laying seconds before.

I pointed my pistol and pulled the trigger. The safety clicked. I swore. The rifleman centered his sights on me. I got to me feet and jumped. The bullets whizzed under me. I turned off the safety. I fired. Flames danced around the end of the short barrel. A highly aerodynamic chunk of subsonic metal flew towards my foe. It missed. I kept firing. The fourth shot hit him in the gut. The fifth struck his hip. The sixth and final hit somewhere no man should be hit with anything, let alone a bullet.

His melee weapon wielding friends had almost reached me. One was hit by a bin, courtesy of Leah's acceleration controlling powers. Another Cultist was downed by a miniature star, sent by Kyle. I scooped a crowbar from the dirt, bloody floor and slammed it into a Cultist's skull. He went down with a sickening crack.

I could hear alarms a sirens. The alarm was coming from a house who's window I had accidentally sent a bullet through. The sirens were coming from Police cars. Being in an isolated battle with lunatics I could just about handle. Being the subject of a nationwide manhunt for a crazed teenager armed to the teeth? That was a completely different story.

"We need to get out of here!" I shouted.

"Why?" Leah shouted, "We can take them on!"

"We're half gods, half puny mortal, they're half puny mortal, half puny mortal!" Kyle added.

"Can't you hear the sirens?" I asked via shouting.

"That is a good point!" Leah shouted, dropping two Cultists she was holding twenty feet off of the ground.

Kyle shouted, "This way!", as he ran from the battle.

I joined him, trying to keep up with Leah, who was a metre or so behind him. As I ran, questions swarmed my mind. Who were the cult? Why did they attack us? Where did they get godly weapons? Are they all mortal? Who do they serve? How did they get so many damned Cultists?

My legs were burning, but the flames in them were nothing compared to the ones blazing through my oxygen starved lungs. I was gasping for breath as I sprinted away from the Cultists. I crossed a road just before the lights turned, and the Cultists were delayed. I thanked the Gods for the good luck.

The chase dragged on and on. At least the sound of sirens was fading into the distance. I got past a lorry just in time. If I had been a metre further back, I would have been pulverised. The Cultists quickly closed the gap. They weren't slowing down at all, but despite my best efforts, I was. Where were they getting their Gods damned energy?

Kyle slammed into a door to an apartment block and it instantly gave way. Leah followed through the empty doorway a second later, and I trailed another second behind her. The Cultists reached the door maybe five seconds after that. Kyle ducked into an elevator, and Leah followed. I tripped, and fell to the floor. Leah controlled my acceleration with her divine powers, shooting me forwards into the elevator. Kyle pressed the button to close the doors. A cultist's hand was milliseconds from stopping that happening.

I staggered to the control panel for the elevator and pressed two buttons; floor three and floor six were added to the elevator's stop list. Floor three, we would get off at and find a hiding place. Floor six would make the cultists wait longer for the elevator, and also throw them off the trail. Unless they had magic detection like their seemingly magic numbers and energy.

Elevator Music played as we ascended. It was meant to be peaceful and calming. To me it sounded mocking. The elevator stopped and my friends and I left the metal box. We pushed our way through a door to a 'For Rent' apartment. Leah closed it behind us, and I collapsed on a show home style sofa. The smart thing to do would be to keep moving, but hiding and catching my breath was the only way I could plausibly keep moving for more than fifteen seconds.

"We've probably got about three minutes until they find us," I said, using the last of my breath.

Leah sat next to me as Kyle stepped into the toilet. I waited a few moments, catching my breath. Then I spoke.

"You saved my life three times back there," I said, "I owe you big time."

Leah turned her head to face me. Her green eyes met my grey ones. She blew a strand of her blonde her out of her face before replying.

"You saved me too. We're even," she said.

"No," I insisted, "I saved you once. You saved me thrice."

"Are you seriously," Leah said, "Talking me into having you ow me a debt?"

"Yes," I said, "It's only fair."

"Well, if you say so," Leah said.

I noticed how close we were sitting to each other. It was too close, in my opinion. My face turned slightly red as I scooted away from Leah. I heard cultists break into a room elsewhere on the floor. Kyle stepped out of the toilet seconds later.

"We need to get moving," he said.

"Captain Obvious," I mumbled to Leah, who smiled in response.

"How?" Leah asked Kyle.

"Can you get us across the rooftops?" I asked.

"Of course," she replied, acting offended.

"I mean, with everyone worn down and stuff," I said.

"I can get us a few roofs away, maybe," she said, "Front door's not an option anyway, so it's worth a try."

"Then let's do it," Kyle said.

"For Sparta," I added randomly.

The Cultists broke into the next room along as Leah stepped out of the window. Kyle followed, and was kept suspended at the same height as Leah. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and leapt through the window as the Cultists knocked onto this door, almost breaking it.

We all floated to the roof of the neighbouring building, and took off at a jog for the ledge. The roof was flat, thankfully, and with the exception of a TV Dish and a roof entrance, free of obstacles. We jumped, and Leah propelled us to the next. As we landed on the fifth roof, Leah stumbled and fell over. Kyle and I quickly helped her to her feet. She swayed unsteadily on the dead flat roof.

"I can't... Get us further... Than this," Leah said, looking exhausted, but managing to stand.

"I guess that means we're taking refuge here," I said, noticing the Police Helicopters circling where the Cultists had attacked us earlier.

I heard a helicopter's rotors, the sound rapidly growing louder. The fact I could heard it above the sound of dozens of cars and pedestrians below was worrying. What made it even more worrying was the way Leah's hair was whipping about, and dust was being blown across the rooftop. It was certainly not the wind, so that meant it was a helicopter's downwash. That just reinforced the already desperate need to get into the building.

Unfortunately, the metal door was locked electronically, and heavily reinforced. I couldn't get it open for love nor money, as the saying goes. The helicopter was drawing closer rapidly. I turned to the keypad, and slung my backpack off. I opened it, took out my iPad and opened up my hacking app as fast as I could. I aimed the camera at the keypad, and the wireless hacking software unlocked the door. I opened it and stepped in. Thank Hermes for Demigod only apps. My friends followed me in, and the door slammed closed behind us. We were safe, at least for a moment.

I let out a sigh of relief.

**A/N: Welcome to Act 2, people. Out of Camp and into the wide open world. Next chapter will be a lot more character focused than this one, which was action based. Please review, everyone. I know you're reading and enjoying this based on the favorites, so please thank me for the entertainment with a brief review.**


	9. Getting Stuff Done, Eventually

**A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long. A combination of writer's block, homework and my young step-brothers is one made in the fires of Mordor. But, it's here now, so have fun reading it!**

Leah sat down on the maroon carpet, leaning against the cream coloured walls. I couldn't even begin to imagine how exhausted she was after running just as much as me, but also having to use her powers.

"Let's get somwhere out of sight," I said, "Wouldn't want to tick off a security guard right now."

"This office is empty," Kyle said, pointing to a nearby door, "Can your iPad hack it open?"

"Easily," I said, pointing the device towards the electronic keypad.

It beeped after a second and Kyle walked in through the newly unlocked door. I helped Leah back to her feet and led her into the Office. She found a swivel chair and sat down on it. Kyle locked the door with the interior keypad, and found a seat by the window. It was tinted, so there was no risk of being recognised through it.

I handed my iPad to Leah, and she opened up Candy Crush 2. I personally didn't like the game, but my best friend loved it, so I kept it on my iPad. I walked to a random swivel chair and sat down in it. It wasn't the most comfotable seat ever, but it wasn't uncomfortable either. It was just average.

I sat in the chair, whistling a tune that I couldn't remember the origin of. Kyle was watching cars drive by below. His dark blonde hair looked like some kind of animal had made a nest in it. My hair probably looked the same. Leah's didn't, but it was incredibly messy. She was playing Candy Crush 2, and was deeply absorbed in it, oblivious to the outside world.

I walked over to Kyle, grabbing one of the seats as I went. It was on wheels, and glided effortlessly along with me as though it had been designed to do so. Oh, wait, it had. I placed the chair next to Kyle and sat down on it.

"Hi," I said.

"Hello, Alex," Kyle replied.

"Having fun so far?" I said.

"Yes, obviously," Kyle said.

I had meant to be sarcastic, but when I thought about it and was honest with myself... I had enjoyed it. Maybe it was because Demigods were born to fight. Possibly it was down to the fact that the training that had defined years of my life had finally been put to good use. It might have been the adrenaline. Or potentialy just the thrill.

Whatever it was, I had enjoyed fighting the Cultists, in some ways. That scared me. It sounded like some a psychopath would say, or a child of Ares (two groups which I suspect often overlap).

"Honestly?" I asked, clearly serious this time.

"Well, kind of," Kyle said.

"The fighting was fun, right?" I said.

"Yeah," Kyle admitted.

"For me, too," I said, "Are we some kind of, like, sadists or something?"

"Nah," Kyle said, "Just Demigods."

I stared out of the window for a few seconds. On the streets below, there was a traffic jam. Masses of silver cars contrasted sharply with the many yellow taxis, and the few red and blue cars in the mix stuck out like sore thumbs. Pedestrians were walking by on the pavement, texting, swinging their arms idly, or looking in awe at the skyscrapers.

No Cultists were in sight, and the only Policeman in the area was walking the streets idly, clearly not searching for anyone; my two friends and I were safe, as long as no one in the building was hunting us, but I severely doubted that. I don't think anyone saw us enter.

"Should we contact Jake?" I asked.

"Why? We don't need anything yet," Kyle said, "Except a McDonalds. I'm hungry."

"You and your food, " I sighed, "But, anyway I can think of a few non-McDonalds things," I said.

"Yeah? Like what?" Kyle challenged.

"Research on them cultists, or directions to somewhere we can clean ourselves and change out of these clothes," I said, "That's two reasons."

"The number two's significant to you, isn't it?" Kyle said.

"Huh?" I 'said'.

"Well, it's your mental age, amount of brain cells, etcetera," Kyle joked.

"If I'm as stupid as you say, where does that leave you?" I retorted.

"It leaves me better than you," Kyle said.

"Only on opposite day," I said.

We continued to banter for a while before we ran out of things to say. Kyle went to talk to Leah. I kept watching the movement on the street. People walked and talked. Cars accelerated and braked over and over. A pair of helicopters passed overhead. I wished I had a camera so I could do a timelapse of the street. Although, I didn't really have anywhere even remotely near enough time to make a good length timelapse.

Kyle walked up behind me and took a sheet by the window after a while.

"Hey, can you get Leah to leave some battery on your iPad for me?" he asked.

"Oh, that reminds me. I should get the iPad plugged in!" I said, not bothering to answer Kyle's question.

I headed over to Leah, grabbing my backpack from where I had dropped it on the floor earlier. I sat next to Leah and dug through my bag looking for my charger. My hands were claws that tore paths through my stuff. I found my charger and pulled it out.

"Leah," I said by way of greeting.

"Yeah?" my best friend asked, not looking up from Candy Crush.

"Can you plug the iPad in please? Wouldn't want to run out of battery when I need to hack a keypad, after all," I said, holding out the charger.

Leah paused Candy Crush and plugged the iPad in.

"Are you enjoying the quest?" I said.

"I'm torn. It's thrilling, and all, but then it's exhausting and scary," Leah said.

"Same here," I said, "Although I suppose the calm parts will be just boring."

"Oh? Is my company not enough to entertain you?" Leah asked, putting the iPad down.

"Oh, not that, it's just... Hours sitting on a bus or train will get dull, and there's only so many things we can talk about," I said.

"Yeah, right. Half our conversations don't even have subjects," Leah said.

I thought about it for a moment.

"Good point," I said.

"I win," Leah said.

"Yeah, this time," I replied.

"Every time," she said.

"I'm fairly certain I always win," I said.

"Alright then, name our most recent debate," she said.

"The bus stop's location," I obeyed.

"The one before that?" she asked.

"I can't remember, that was like, at least a day ago," I said.

Leah sighed, "You're like Dory,"

"I'm like a spear?" I asked, automatically translating the Greek word in my head.

"No, not a spear. The fish from Finding Nemo," Leah said.

"That's a dark film," I said, faking a shudder.

"No it isn't," Leah said.

"A man's wife and dozens of unborn babies are killed. His one surviving child is then kidnapped and he has to team up with a mentally damaged woman to save him," I summarised the film's plot.

Leah was silent for a few seconds.

"Yeah, don't think into things too much, or you'll see the dark truths," I said.

"And go insane?" she asked.

"Nah," I answered.

"Then why are you insane?" she asked.

"I'm not in a river in Paris," I joked.

"What?" Leah said.

"Nevermind," I said.

"Please explain, I hate it when I don't get stuff," Leah said.

"It's not that funny anyway," I said.

"Aww, c'mon. Please?" Leah begged.

"There's a river, in Paris, called the River Sein. Therefore, when you said I'm Insane, I pretended to think yor said In SSSEEEIIINNN," I explained.

"You were right, it wasn't that funny," my friend admitted, "Although you do look like you've been in a dirty river. One full of Pirhanas."

I looked down at myself. My shirt was ripped in some places, and still damp with sweat. There was blood on the front of my shirt, trailing down from my nose. My jeans hadn't fared much better, but were mostly blood free. Thank the Gods for small mercies.

"Like you look any better," I retorted.

Leah looked down at herself, and noticed that she was also sweaty, sprayed in blood and that her clothes were ripped.

"We should find somewhere to change," Leah blurted out immdeiately.

I forced myself not to laugh.

"Oi, Kyle," I shouted, "We're talking about important quest stuff now!"

Klye nodded and sat in the nearest chair. He giggled as he raced over towards us on it's wheels.

"That was gay," I said, referring to his giggling.

"So is your mum," Kyle said, then smiled as a thought passed through his dense skull, "Actually, that's a kinda hot thought."

"Oh, gods, I did not need to hear that," I said, miming vomiting.

"You're not the only one saying 'Oh, gods,'" Kyle said, raising his eyebrows.

I threw an empty Costa Coffee paper cup at him. He ducked, but it hit the back of his chair and rolled down to his back. He grabbed it and threw it away. Leah and him were both laughing.

"Oh, sc-" I started, but decided against using the word screw.

"Shut the f-" I realised using fuck wouldn't help my case either.

"I hate you both," I said at long last.

"Overeaction, much?" Leah said.

"Yeah, like the mental image of your mother in bed wouldn't piss either of you off," I grumbled.

"I find it kinda h-" Kyle started.

"Well, you're not normal, Kyle," I said.

"Thank you," Kyle said.

"It wasn't a compliment," I said.

"Boys," Leah cut in, "Important quest stuff?"

"Oh, right," I said.

"Left," Kyle added.

"Up," I played along.

"Down," Kyle said.

"Shake it all about," I sang.

"You do the Hokey Cokey and you turn around," Kyle sang.

"Oh, the Hokey Cokey," I started off the chorus.

Leah just rolled her eyes as Kyle and I did the Hokey Cokey.

"Ok, that's enough," I said after the chorus, realising that we'd gotten a little bit too distracted for it to be reasonable.

Kyle pouted.

"That doesn't work, Kyle," I said.

"Not on you, maybe, but on the ladies it works wonders," Kyle said.

"I beg to differ," Leah said.

Leah and I laughed and high fived.

"We need somewhere to change," Leah said.

"In here," Kyle suggested.

"No!" Leah cried.

"Why not?" Kyle asked.

"Because I don't want you two seeing me changing," Leah said.

"Didn't think of that," Kyle said.

"A toilet?" I chipped in.

"Have you ever been in an offive toilet? Claustrophobic as it gets, no room to change," Kyle said.

"How about a Gym changing room, then?" I said sarcastically.

"That's a good idea!" Kyle said.

Leah nodded in agreement. After a brief debate, I agreed too. My iPad was returned to my bag as we left the office and headed through the corridors. Unfortunately for us, we saw a security guard at the elevator.

"How do we get rid of him?" I asked.

Leah thrusted out her palm and the poor, surprised guy flew into the wall. A second later, his unconscious body was on the floor. We entered the elevator and headed to the ground floor. We dashed out at the bottom. Leah lead the way and Kyle and I followed. We rounded a corner or two, and eventually found the way out.

My iPad provided me with directions, and soon enough we were at a Gym. It was closed for repairs to the pool. Kyle melted the old fashioned lock with a beam of starlight, and we were in.

I headed into the male changing rooms, and got rid of my old clothes. I then stepped into one of the showers. The water was relaxing, but stung the cut on my hand. Once I was clean, I dried myself off and got dressed into fresh clothes. Kyle had finished doing so a few seconds before me.

We waited outside the changing rooms for Leah. I could hear a clock ticking from the Gym entrance. When Leah did come out, it was worth the wait. She'd done all of her various makeup, put her hair into a casually mussed ponytail, and used some kind of eyeshadow. I had to admit, she looked really good. I slapped myself mentally for thinking that. She was my friend, I shouldn't think about her like that.

We went to get a bus. Thanks to my crafty decision to ask for directions rather than aimlessly wander, we found our destination in no time. After paying our bus fair, we headed to the back of the bus as it began it's journey. The exhaustion I was feeling took over, and I drifted into a dreamless sleep as the bus rumbled along.

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Please leave a review. It's fairly quick, easy, and only fair! **


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